CHAPTER ELEVEN
Riddick saw the disbelief on the girl's face, replaced by eagerness and a fierce determination.
"Are you sure it was her? I mean, it's pretty dark out here. Maybe you were mistaken. Besides, the last I heard, she was on Helion Prime."
Despite the doubt in her voice, Riddick sensed the girl's excitement. She wanted it to be Kyra. Jack. Whatever the fuck name she went by these days.
"No mistake," he said. "It was her." As if he could possibly be mistaken about something like that.
"So why'd you let her go? Where is she now?" Kylie leapt to her feet and would have sprinted out of the alleyway if he hadn't hauled her back against his chest, flailing in protest.
"You don't want to go out there."
"The hell I don't! Let me go right now. Damn you, Riddick!" She twisted in his grasp, but escape was futile. "Maybe I can still find her."
He released his vice-like hold on her, and took hold of the chain around her waist, wrapping the loose end around his fist. "We don't find her. She'll find us."
The girl gave a grunt of protest as he dragged her forward and bent down to scoop Captain Terran into his arms and position her limp form over his shoulder once more.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kylie hung back, forcing him to half-drag her out of the alley. "She doesn't even know I exist, has no idea we're sisters. What makes you think she'll come looking for us?"
"Because she knows I'm here."
Kylie was silent after that.
They made their way through the dark city. He backtracked several times, making sure they weren't being followed, before he finally stopped in front of a dilapidated building whose door and windows were haphazardly boarded over. It looked to be an abandoned warehouse of sorts. Riddick kicked the door in with one booted foot and stepped back, indicating Kylie should precede him into the building.
As they made their way through the debris-strewn rooms, Riddick heard the furtive rustlings of small animals that had taken up residence in the abandoned structure. He picked them out clearly with his night vision. Feral cats, mostly. He peered into each room they passed, until finally he stopped at the doorway of one.
"We'll stay here tonight."
Kylie peered past him into the gloom and he felt her shudder. "Can't we keep moving?"
Riddick didn't answer. He entered the room and swept his gaze around the interior. There was a soiled mattress on the floor in the corner, along with several discarded articles of clothing. Through a narrow doorway beyond the mattress, he saw a tiny bathroom.
He deposited the unconscious pilot onto the mattress and stepped into the bathroom. He didn't need artificial light to see his surroundings; he did better in the pitch black, but he could smell the girl's fear. She didn't like the dark.
Pulling the antiquated chain affixed to the overhead light fixture, he was rewarded when there was a static flickering of light that alternately dimmed, brightened, and dimmed again, illuminating the tiny room and revealing just how truly squalid it really was. He turned the faucet on the sink and a thin trickle of brown liquid splashed into the filthy bowl.
"C'mon, Riddick," Kylie urged, hovering in the doorway. "We don't have to stay here."
"Why not?" he asked sardonically. "It's got all the comforts of home."
"It's disgusting."
"Like I said before, Princess…you're soft. I've seen worse. Much worse."
He watched as she moved slowly around the small room, her face a mixture of horror and disgust. "So how do you know it was my sister you saw out there, huh? After all, it's been….what, five years since you've seen her? A person can change a lot in five years. Besides, the last reports I had, she was on Helion Prime."
"She's changed. But some things you can't hide."
She looked sharply at him. "What do you mean, changed?"
"First, you tell me what you know of Jack."
She blew her breath out in frustration. "I found your holy man, Imam. He said Kyra ran away five years ago, right after you left them. She was going after you. Instead, she got herself into trouble and killed a man. The last I heard, she'd hooked up with a group of mercenaries. She's a wanted woman, Riddick, and it's not just you and me who want to find her."
Riddick watched as she walked back to the mattress where the captain lay, the loose end of chain dragging behind her and echoing eerily in the vacant room. She used her foot to kick aside debris, and bent over the unconscious woman. She laid the back of her hand against the other's forehead.
"Jesus, Riddick." Her voice was filled with fear. "She's burning up. We really need to get some help here, or she's going to die."
Riddick ignored her, leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his chest. "So Jack hooked up with some merc's." He gave a laugh that sounded harsh. "Stupid goddamned thing to do."
"Yeah," Kylie agreed. "Stupid. What's even more stupid is you thinking you saw her out there. I'm telling you, she's on Helion Prime. I have excellent sources who have confirmed sightings of her there."
"Fuck your sightings, Princess."
Kylie, crouched on her heels beside the mattress, whirled in his direction. He could see the fury in her eyes. "No, fuck you. I will not stay on this goddamned planet for one more second, do you hear me?" She pushed herself to her feet. "Whatever you saw out there, it wasn't my sister."
With a low growl, Riddick plucked her off the ground by front of her flightsuit, hauling her upward until her face was no more than a hair's breadth from his own. She gasped. Her eyes were wide. He could smell her fear. And beneath that, something else. Something he didn't want to acknowledge. Something she had no right to feel, especially toward him. Especially now, in this shit hole, with cons slithering through the streets, sniffing for them.
"You say you've never even seen your sister, Princess," he sneered. "I have, remember? And I say it was Jack. Just not the Jack I remember, or the Kyra you want to find."
"Why?" The word was scarcely more than a whisper.
His nostrils flared briefly, dragging in her scent. She smelled good. She smelled of clean sweat and sweet woman. She smelled wholesome and healthy. Alive. It was intoxicating. And dangerous.
"Your sister is a carrier."
There was a momentary silence. "A what?"
"A carrier. She's diseased. I could see it on her face; smell it on her." He released the front of Kylie's flight suit, allowing her to drop to the ground.
He watched as she passed a hand over her face. "No, that can't be." She jerked her head up and stared hard at Riddick. "What kind of disease?"
"The worst kind. The kind that kills you slow and painful. Necrotizing cerebellitis."
He watched as Kylie continued to stare at him. "But that's--that's impossible. That disease kills you within days. If she had the disease, she'd be bedridden or already dead, not stalking the streets of Antellion Prime."
"I said she was a carrier. Probably why she got dumped here."
"How can you tell she's a carrier?"
"She's got all the signs; the dark splotches on the skin, especially her face. And her eyes..."
Kylie drew in her breath, as though steeling herself against a physical blow. "What about her eyes?" Her voice was low.
"They're bloody."
He watched as Kylie closed her eyes in defeat, and then sank to her knees and covered her face. He knew how she felt. They'd found Jack, and she was worse than dead.
As a carrier of the disease, Jack would be a pariah, shunned by all who came into contact with her. He wondered how she'd contracted the disease that, for most victims, slowly ate away your brain, until it was nothing more than gray soup. Eventually, it would find its way out of your skull through the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. Even minute contact with an infected person could bring on the disease.
But to be a carrier was infinitely worse. The disease caused acute headaches and hemorrhaging of the tiny blood vessels beneath the skin, which marked you as a carrier, but didn't kill you. It played hell with your sense of reality and many carriers became raving lunatics.
"So now what?" Kylie raised her face to his. Her eyes swam with unshed tears. "We can't bring her with us; she could infect us all. There's no cure for what she has."
"I won't leave her here. And as for a cure...I've heard things."
Kylie frowned. "What kinds of things?"
"There's a holy man on the planet Xiona. They say he can cure the disease."
Kylie snorted. "Yeah, I've heard all about that holy man. Trust me, the cure is worse han the disease. You'd be doing Kyra a favor by leaving her here."
Riddick made a low growling sound. "We don't leave without her, Princess."
Kylie shuddered. "If what you say is true, then you've condemned us all to die."